Trip To The Past- Lightning Thief
by NicoDiAngeloLover7
Summary: I've been asked to Re-Post this because it was removed, I'm happy to know there are people who loved this story. Percy, Nico, Annabeth, Thalia are zapped to the past by the Fates to read Percy Jackson And The Olympians with the Gods. Don't Like, Don't Read. SLASH- Nico/Percy.
1. Chapter 1

_At Olympus_

At The Winter Solstice, Zeus and Poseidon are arguing, like always. Air disasters are much better than sea disaster, Mother Rhea always liked me best, I have the better domain; Hades was thinking about Bianca and Nico and how they might be doing in the Lotus And Hotel Casino at that very moment. Hera and Demeter are talking about families, Hermes and Apollo as usually were talking about pranks, Artemis and Athena discussing plans and ideas; Dionysus was looking bored, Hephaestus making something out of metal, Aphrodite is checking her makeup; Ares was messing with his weapons, while Hestia was at her hearth.

Then finally Chiron and the demigods arrived. Clarisse La Rue, Travis and Connor Stoll, Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf, Katie Gardner, Chris Rodriguez. Before Zeus could even order them to identify themselves, there was a bright light, and suddenly four demigods are falling from the sky.

* * *

**3rd P.O.V.**

_Camp Halfblood_

Annabeth, Thalia, Percy, and Nico were hanging out at the Lake while talking. Thalia's telling Annabeth about what exactly she was doing in the Hunters of Artemis. Nico and Percy are holding hands, just talking about school, the underworld, and their relationship. Just then a bright white light surrounds them and they find themselves falling through the air. Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia fall right onto the couch, while Percy lands face first on the floor. Then he complains, "How is it that I land on the floor and you all get to land on the couch. So not fair."

"We just lucky that way, kelp head," Thalia commented smugly. Just then a box of books hit Percy in the face while he totally didn't expect it.

"What the Hades! Why does that always happen to me!"

Thalia and Annabeth begin to laugh at Percy's express, while Nico's trying not to grin.

"Guys! Look where we are," says teenage girl with blond hair and stormy gray eyes.

The boy with the black skull t-shirt, black skinny jeans, messy black hair, blackish-brown eyes then asks, "Why did you summon us?"

"We didn't summon you? who are you people." Says Hermes confused.

"You don't know us?" said a boy with blue jeans and an orange half-blood camp shirt, sea green eyes, and black hair.

"Should we know you?" Says Athena

What year is this? Said Annabeth

"1990, now who are you and what are you doing here on Olympus!" Yelled Zeus

Just then a note appeared. "why don't we read the note first, it might explain why we're here." Offered Annabeth.

Hermes then walked up and read the note aloud. "Dear Gods' and Goddess' of Olympus, we have sent these demigods into the past so you may learn about them and prevent a great war and many deaths. DO NOT HARM them, since they are of great importance or you will face the consquences. And just accept your children for who they are and not their parents. ~Apollo and the Fates."

"So what are the books we're going to be reading?" Artemis asks.

"Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse, Battle Of The Labyrinth, Last Olympian, Lost Hero, Son of Neptune, and Mark of Athena." Nico said after he saw the books.

"Why don't you all introduce your selves and then we'll start," says Poseidon.

"I'm Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, Hunter and Lieutenant of Artemis."

Zeus and Artemis give her a smile. But Hermes then blurts out, "But you're not a tree, how is that possible"

"I'm not going to tell, but it should be in the second book."

"Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena and Architect of Olympus."

"But why would we need a architect" Hera asks, who misses the glare Annabeth shot at her.

Nico then pushes Percy forward, who in turn glares at him.

"I'm Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon and Hero Of Olympus." Then Hades and Zeus started the argument that was expected to break out and directed at Poseidon. "Does the Oath mean nothing to you, so am I the only one to keep the oath! How dare you have a son!" They yell.

Poseidon then yells back, "Would you kill you own child." He was then met with silence when they didn't answer.

Nico nervously stepped forward while slightly shaking. "Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades, Prince of the Underworld and Ghost King." Before Hades' younger brothers could say a thing, he then interrupts, saying, "I didn't break the oath Nico's been in the Lotus And Hotel Casino for over 70 years." Nico who was still shaking and sat beside Percy who then threads his fingers through his hair in an effort calm him down, just like he always did. And surprisingly nobody payed any mind to this.

"Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares." Ares gave a small smile

"Chris Rodriguez, Son of Hermes." Hermes gives him a grin

"Travis...

and Connor...

STOLL, Son of Hermes."

"Katie Gardner, Daughter of Demeter." Her mother gently smiled at her.

"Silena Beauregard, Daughter of Aphrodite." And everyone missed the sad smiles the future demigods sent her.

"Charles Beckendorf, Son Of Hephaestus." Though only Athena then sees the sad smiles the same future demigods sent and wondered what had happened in the future.

"Who's reading first", asked Athena

"I will," says Hestia. Bring her to everyone attention, but Nico and Percy. Who had already seen her since they arrived.


	2. Chapter 2

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.**

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Not going to work Perce," Thalia muttered.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

The demigods winced.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

You didn't warn us/me. Shouted the Stolls, Hermes, and Apollo

**My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes." Nico Mumbled

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You even agree." Nico, Apollo, Hermes, Thalia, and Annabeth. They all got blasted out of their seat, except for Nico.

Hermes then asks. "How come Nico get blast out of his seat by water?"

Nico's got special privilages. Replies Percy.

Aphrodite then started to wonder to herself all meanings behind the son of Poseidon's comment. 'It's a possibility,' she thought to herself.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds interesting." Athena and both Annabeth said.

"No sounds like torture." Poseidon said.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"Father like son." Hestia said. Poseidon and Percy smiled.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"Is that..." Thalia started to ask.

"Yep," Percy said while glancing at Chiron who was behind him.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Should be sleeping in class anyways," Athena scolded.

Percy just nodded, not wanting to have another god or goddess to kill him.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway**

Everyone busted out laughing, even Athena chuckled. "What were you aiming for?" Nico said in between laughter.

"I don't think I was." Percy said. That made everyone laugh more. And made most of the Gods fall off their thrones.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Everyone laughed. "I love your son he's hilarious." Hermes laughed so hard he fell and hit his head. "Ow I'm ok." That made his kids laugh harder

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Not going to happen, Perce. If I know you," Nico commented.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Eww." Everyone said.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. **

**"**Oh, Grover's going to love hearing this," Thalia said with an evil smirk on her face.

**On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares and both Clarisses yelled.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"I'm pretty sure not his hair," Thalia muttered.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer," Athena corrected.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, astele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Why is Alecto there?" Hades thought to himself since he recognized her by Percy's description. Nico was in thought, he had a feeling he either faced her or something. But he couldn't remember exactly how.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Way to blow your cover, goat boy," Annabeth muttered.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did," Thalia said.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"So was it the same type of red when you get caught by us when you are making out with..." Thalia said before her mouth was covered.

This definitely got Aphrodite's attention to pinpoint towards Percy. "So who are you dating then?"

Percy didn't bother to answer while his face turned into a shade of red while glancing at his friends.

Nico trying unsuccessfully not laugh, Thalia giving him an evil smirk, and Annabeth snickering that it was almost revealed who he was dating.

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"It's always that one," most of the Olympian groaned.

Chiron gave a apologetic smile.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"GOD! the Olympians yelled.

"Sorry, but I do correct myself," said Percy

**and—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself.**

"There."

**"And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Did you seriously just summarize down a war that lasted years into a few sentences?" Nico asked

"Yep, sure did." Percy said.

Nico just shook his head in aspiration, though he gave Percy a small smile that nobody noticed.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Unless your a demigod," Katie muttered quietly.

"Busted." Travis and Conner, Apollo and Hermes said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"We think like a goat!" Travis and Conner, Apollo and Hermes said.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"More like horse ears." Percy whispered to Nico.

"I heard that." Chiron said.

Percy and Nico blushed deep red and looked everywhere but at Chiron as everyone laughed at the duo.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"When do they not?" Artemis asked.

"Now." Percy said. Artemis pointed to Apollo and Hermes, who were ruff housing at the moment.

"Well those two never do count."

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Not quite," comment Chiron.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"Wow pressure much." Conner and Travis said.

"Sorry." Chiron said.

"It's fine, plus you had to." Percy said.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

'Why is Zeus furious,' Athena wondered to herself.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"I don't think I wanted to," Percy commented.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Not happening and you know that your not a loser freak." Nico said while giving him a glare, daring him to argue.

Percy just replied, You know, you are just plain lucky."

"And why's that?" Asked Aphrodite.

Nico and Percy replied, "Nothing," while their faces turned pink. Which made Aphrodite a little suspicious and curious at the same time.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Got that right," Annabeth commented. Earning one of Nico's most vicious death glare.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.**

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Turn off." Travis said, looking grossed out by the description.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"Opps did I do that." Percy said grinning. Everyone laughed.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"NO NEVER EVER SAY THAT RULE TWENTY-FOUR!" Hermes, Conner, Travis and Chris yelled.

"Sorry didn't know about the rule but I know them now." Percy said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Never guess your punishment ever." Chris said.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"With good reason," Percy muttered.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

'How did she get there so fast?' Nico wondered. He already figured out she was a monster/

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

"Bad idea," Chris muttered.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

Poseidon was looking pale while clenching his throne.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"I don't think that was a very good idea, Perce." Said Nico. And laid his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes.

Which got the attention of Aphrodite, she was positive that something was going on between them, the love aura around them proved that enough. She needed to watch them more closely to make sure.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Nico started biting his lip, worried about Percy. He's knew exactly who she was, he just prayed that he was wrong.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"When do you ever do the safe thing?" Thalia asked.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

'Get away with what,' Athena wondered.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Oh, yeah she will," Hades muttered.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Percy just a double glare from both Athena and Annabeth.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"You faced Alecto! And didn't tell me," Nico yelled

"I told you I faced a fury. I just didn't tell you exactly when," Percy said.

"I thought it was later, when you faced her, not your first monster," Nico whispered.

"Sorry, I didn't want to you to worry," Percy muttered while biting his bottom lip.

"That almost gave me a heart attack," Nico replied.

"Nico, why would you can if Percy faced a fury," Hades asked, slightly suspicious.

"No reason at all," Nico replied

Hestia had stopped reading, and everyone was paying attention to their conversation, especially Aphrodite.

Aphrodite was almost certain they were together. She would definitely have to talk to them after this chapter.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"What good will a pen do," Ares said.

Poseidon smiled.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp," Ares commented.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.**

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"You still let the mist affect you?" Thalia asked.

She didn't get an answer.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Everyone in the throne room asked, with the exception of Percy.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Never hesitate when you lie, it's rule #7." Travis said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"No! who?" Athena asked figuring out everything.

"Nope not telling." The future demi gods said.

"What?" Zeus asked.

"No, sorry not telling." Athena said.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"Now Chiron can lie." Nico said.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Who's next?" Hestia asked marking the page.


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN: All rights go to Rick Riordan, I own nothing of this.**_

* * *

"I will. And knowing Apollo and Hermes, they're probably starving at the moment, so we'll eat after this chapter" Says Artemis

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Where would we be if you weren't a psycho?" Clarisse said.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Let me guess, it's all Grover's fault." Thalia said.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"He really is a bad liar." Annabeth said.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"He really needs to learn to lie better, could you teach him Travis, I'll pay you five drachmas." Annabeth said.

"Make it ten and you've got you self a deal."

"Fine,"

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Yeah my uncle, who is king of the underworld sent one of the Fury's after me and I kicked her butt." Percy said. Everyone watched to see if the ground would swallow him up, but it didn't.

"Why didn't it swallow you up?" Hades asked.

"They don't like Riptide one bit," Percy said with a smirk.

"I don't think any monster does," Chris said.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"I hate it when that happens," The demigods groaned.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Both Athena and Annabeth rolled their eyes and Annabeth smacked Percy upside the head. "OW Wise-girl what was that for?" Percy asked.

"For being a Seaweed Brain, sorry Nico." Annabeth said.

"Ow that one hurt and we all know my grades are better now so no need to smack me."

"It's fine Annabeth, plus he deserved it," Nico said with a smirk.

"Why isn't anyone on my side," Percy whined.

"Sorry, but you still deserved it," Nico and Annabeth said together.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Kelp Head." Nico said. Putting his head onto Percy's shoulder without anyone noticing.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Athena and both Annabeths laughed softly. Everyone looked at them. "It means old drunk." The said together.

"So Mr. D?" Conner asked.

"Yes Mr. D." Chiron said.

"HEY!" Dionysus said.

"Sorry but true."

He just glared.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Paul doesn't seem like the type to gamble?" Nico said.

"That's because this is before Paul." Percy said looking down, while scaring a lot of people. For something that's so cute and sweet, he sure can be scary. Though it was like he was also dreading and hiding something.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

"I wonder how Grover will react to that, huh Percy?" Thalia said.

"Don't even think about it, I don't want to get trampled," Percy replied.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"I do know and not telling you how." Percy said.

"Why?" Poseidon asked paling. "You'll find out later."

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

"Oh no." Chiron sighed.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"I am" Said Hermes, Chris, Travis and Connor Stoll.

"We all know that," Athena said while rolling her eyes.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"He does have a good point." Demeter said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"Way more." Clarisse said.

The demigods nodded in agreement.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"I swear when I see that goat boy..." Thalia said letting the threat hanging.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

Oh boy." Hermes and his three sons said.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

Chiron whistled innocently.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

Percy just groaned at the reminder.

While earning a few snickers from the demigods.

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

"Nope." Percy said.

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"Won't work," Hera muttered.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"I was," muttered Percy.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"T-three hours!" The demigods yelled.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"Great, now's Barnacle Beard's son is going to think you're saying he's destined to be kicked out." Said Athena

"I really need to get better at that." Chiron said sighing.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Oh I think she likes you." Silena said.

"Please don't make me sick." Percy said baring his face in Nico's head.

Which made Aphrodite and Silena smile.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"Ouch, that must have hurt," Travis said.

"I really need to get better." Chiron sighed.

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Nobodies huh." Zeus said.

"Definitely not a nobody now, ever since I knew I was a demigod," Percy explained.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Nico glared at the book.

"How cruel," Demeter said.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Well that definitely wasn't a coincidence," Clarisse muttered.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Oh that had to definitely scare him out of his skin," Apollo said.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"Oh about all of it." Chris said.

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"Grover you're a really, really bad lair." Thalia said before Artemis smirked.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"AHHH NOW I THINK LIKE SEAWEED BRAIN!" Thalia yelled.

Percy just pouted.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

"Fancy script?" Zeus asked.

"It's fun to watch them struggle to read them," Dionysus said.

The demigods groaned, 'of course Mr D wanted them to suffer.'

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"That was a bit harsh," Hera scolded.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"At least you knew," Hera commented.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

Poseidon began to pale, having an idea what exactly was happening.

"An apple would be good anyone else want one?" Demeter asked. Athena and Poseidon raised their hands. Apples appeared in our hands and we started to eat them.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**"Why does that sound like I know who they are?" Apollo asked. Athena gasped and said**

"The fates." Everyone paled and looked at Percy.

"Ha-ha I'm in so much trouble." Percy said nerveless. And didn't dare to look at Nico.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Oh no." Poseidon said paling and threw his apple at Hades. "Ow what I do?"

"I can't throw it at the fates so you were the best person." I said.

"Poseidon you son's right here I'm sure' he's going to be fine." Hestia said while giving him a hug and trying to comfort him.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Dude no time to joke." Travis said.

"OI I was trying to light the mood." Percy said

While Nico paled even more.

Percy then whispered to him. "Don't worry, it not mine"

Nico then sighed in relief.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Nico then started to repeatedly mutter. "It's not his"

Percy grabbed his hand to tell him, he was still there. But not without the attention of Aphrodite when he did grab Nico's hand.

Their dad's oblivious to it all.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"H-how are you still alive?" Demeter asked.

"It wasn't my life line that's all I'm saying." Percy said.

Nico and Poseidon breathed in relief.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything." Chris and Clarisse said together.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"A lot worse." Hades said.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"Observant." Athena said

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

Thalia looked down.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"And that didn't work out." Percy mumbled but nobody heard him.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"Wished it worked." Percy mumbled.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's it." Artemis said marking the page and closing the book.

"I'm surprised you weren't whining about food, Apollo." Artemis said.

"I usually get hungry when someone mentions food." Apollo replied

"Why don't we go in the kitchen to for lunch" Zeus said.

"Before we eat, I wish to speak to Nico and Percy, it won't take long" Aphrodite said

Everyone agreed and headed for the kitchen, while Nico and Percy were starting to look very nervous all of a sudden.


	4. Chapter 4 - Aphrodite's Talk

_**AN: All rights go to Rick Riordan, I don't own any of this.**_

* * *

Nico and Percy were very nervous, they knew what Aphrodite was going to ask. And they didn't know how to respond to whatever that might be. They wanted their parents to know, but you never know what Zeus might think. But maybe Zeus wouldn't care, then of course it would be out-of-the-way and they could actually act couple-like how they wanted. And wouldn't need to care what anyone thought about them. But for now they would have to wait until Aphrodite came back since she was telling the gods she wanted to talk to them privately. Just then Aphrodite came back in the Throne Room.

_Aphrodite's P.O.V_.

I just told the gods and demigods that I wanted to talk to Nico and Percy privately. They didn't seem to mind and continued to eat and chat to each other.

When I arrived back in the Throne Room, you could tell Nico and Percy were nervous. Well so far it looks like my suspicions about them were correct. And I started to question them.

"Are you and Nico dating?"

"W-Why do y-you ask." Said Percy while slightly stuttering

"The way you and Nico look at each other, when Nico puts his on your shoulder ever so often, and it explains why Nico was always worried about you, especially when he learned you faced a Kindly One"

Percy then glared at Nico

Who is turn just look at him innocently and gave him a small smile.

"So I was right, you two are dating" I exclaimed

"How do you know" Nico asked

"Percy also did say that he allows you special privileges when Apollo asked why Percy didn't blast you off your seat with water. Plus when you laid you're head on Percy's shoulder every so often it kinda obvious to the goddess of love that you're dating"

"Fine, yeah, we're dating" Nico said.

Percy just glared at Nico.

"What! I just want to get it out-of-the-way, and I don't want to pretend that I'm not dating you. Plus I couldn't care less what my dad thinks"

"Aww, that's so sweet! Now since I now know that you two are dating, lets go to the kitchen to eat."

_3rd POV_

The Kitchen

Thalia and Artemis were talking about the "Hunt" while eating, Annabeth and Athena were talking about books, since they were already done eating. Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon were talking about their children, and slightly wondering what Aphrodite was talking about with Percy and Nico. Demeter was talking about cereal with her daughter Katie. Apollo, Hermes, Chris, Travis and Connor were talking about pranking Artemis, Ares and Clarisse were talking about war, typical. Hephaestus and Beckendorf were talking about automatons, Hestia and Hera was talking to Silena, Dionysus was complaining about the brats at Camp to Chiron. Then suddenly Nico and Percy walked in, hand, in hand with Aphrodite trailing behind them. And everyone just stared at them, until Percy just said "What?" Everyone turned back to their food before Percy got some Pasta out and then added blue dye to it, along with Nico. After everyone finished, they headed back to the Throne Room to finish reading the book.


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: All rights go to Rick Riordan, I own nothing.**_

_Has a hint of abuse and perhaps rape when they read that Gabe might have been abusive if Percy told that he supply his gambling funds. Though it's only mentioned.  
_

* * *

"Who's reading now" Percy asked

"I guess I will" Said Annabeth

**"Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants."**

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

**I know, I know. It was rude.**

"At least he knows." Hera said.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"Ok, now I see why you ditched him." Thalia said.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

"Good, always wait for the right moment." Hermes said.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"Don't even think about going to prank my house you guys." Percy said. Hermes and his sons sheepishly smiled.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"The best mother you could ask for." Nico said.

"Amazing." Thalia said.

"Fantastic." Annabeth said.

"The best." Percy said.

"Beautiful." Poseidon said remembering Sally.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"Not fair." Katie said. "Nope." Percy said.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her.**

ZEUS!" Aphrodite threw her lip gloss at him but he dodged.

"Hey missed." Zeus said. Hera smacked his head.

"Ow." Zeus said rubbing his head. Hera smiled sweetly and innocently. Zeus glared as everyone tried to hide their laughter.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money fora college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"I don't get how she was able to fall for old kelp face here." Athena pointing at Poseidon. The sea god glared as everyone laughed. Apollo laughed.

"That's funny Thena." Athena shrugged.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

"Aww she still loves you." The two love people cooed.

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Impressive she lied and told the truth." Hermes said.

"My kind of women." Travis said. Katie looked down feeling jealous.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Not one bit." Percy said. While Nico leaned against him, holding his hand.

Hades' raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano,**

"Is that the first step father?" Thalia asked. "Yeah." Percy growled while clenching his teeth.

**who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe.**

"Did he really smell that bad?" Ares asked.

"Yes, he makes it being in a locked room with twenty guys that worked out for three hours small good." Percy said.

"Eww gross." The goddess said.

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Everyone was a little green but Athena she now looked like she was going to be sick. Hera made a glass of water appear in her hand. She drunk a little bit and smiled at Hera mouthing thank you. Hera nodded.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

Percy pulled Nico into his lap and hid his face in his shoulder.

Hades and Poseidon glanced at each other, and silently agreed that as long as their sons' were happy, they didn't mind that they were dating.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Sounds like Ares' basement." Hephaestus said. Everyone laughed.

"Hey my basement is clean now thank you!" Ares said.

"Yeah right." Hermes said.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"I'm going to blast him." Poseidon growled. Percy got up after putting Nico beside him, who was glaring at the book, making Annabeth flinch. And made a wave that made him go up to his father and whispered something.

"All right fine." Percy went to sat down and put Nico back on his lap.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Percy shielded his tears with Nico's hair, he never wanted any of them to find about his past life.

"D-did he hit you?" Zeus asked.

Percy stayed silent. Olympus started to shack and everyone moved having trouble, but Chiron had the most as he tried to stay up. Nico was still furious, he calmed down a bit, only because Percy's was threading his fingers in his hair.

"Yes," he finally said.

"How long," Percy's dad asked.

Percy didn't answer right away but he did when Nico grabbed his hand. "S-s-since I was five," Percy stuttering slightly.

Poseidon took a deep breath in an effort to calm down before he continued. "Did he ever sexual touch or assault you?"

This gained Nico's attention, if someone did that to his Percy. They were going to pay with some very excruciating pain.

"Percy, did he?" Poseidon repeated.

Percy didn't answer right away, but when he finally did answer, you wished that he never did.

Percy answered a very quiet yes. Sparking anger in his father's, Artemis', his friend's, and Nico's eyes.

Only did their anger subside when they heard him sobbing into Nico's chest and clutching his shirt like it was his remain lifeline. Nico sat there just hugging him as close as they could get, whispering comforting thoughts in his ear and rubbing circles on his back. Just trying to comfort him as best as he could before falling asleep in that position.

It was only then did Artemis decide to continue reading.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

Poseidon clenched his teeth.

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

"Stupid man." Artemis said in a British accent.

"Ok we know we're in trouble when Artemis goes British on us." Hermes said.

"No that's Athena." Apollo said. "No when she curses were in trouble."

"Oh oops."

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

"The only reason why she married him was to cover up your sent didn't she?" Athena asked.

"Yeah." A weak voice said.

"Smart woman." Hera said.

"Sure is." Nico said lovingly.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"Wow he figured out something with Math." Conner said.

Some of the demigods snickered.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he has a heart." Hera said.

**"Am I right?"Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Again everyone looked a little green.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Done." Hermes and Dionysus said.

"You're being nice?" Demeter said.

"Hey only I can make their life hard."

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"You're no better and even worse!" Clarisse shouted.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study."**

"I doubt that." both Annabeth and Athena said.

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Anyone else thinking of a garbage can?" Chris asked. Everyone raised their hands.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"I rather stay here Hestia makes it more homey." Percy said, waking up and showing his face a little bit, while still hugging Nico.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,**

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"It's almost as bad as Gabe." Percy said softly looking down.

"If anyone I should be sorry." Poseidon said and Percy hugged Nico closer. Who then blushed.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

"I'm must have been really made over something." Hades thought.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Aw." The goddesses cooed. Percy blushed and poked his head out then stock his tongue out and hide like a little shy boy.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"Wish it was like that here." Hera thought sadly. Hephaestus looked at his mother and started on a gizmo for her.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"I need to say hi to her one day, She did a good job raising my son." Poseidon said.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Now I want some candy too, anyone else?" Apollo asked.

"Blue candy." Percy said. Travis and Conner raised they're hands. Candy appeared in bags for them.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Hey are you boys ok?" Hermes asked his sons.

His sons nodded.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Boys." The girls said.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

"Get your own bean dip." Ares growled.

"I don't like this guy one bit."

"For once I agree with him." Hephaestus said not looking up from his work.

"What are you working on now?" Beckendorf asked.

"A surprises."

"For who?"

"A surprises."

"You're not going to tell me more are you?"

"Later I will, but not now that ok?"

"Yeah Dad."

**I gritted my teeth.**

Many people did the same thing.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum**

**um ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"No lying!" Hermes said. Everyone was shocked.

"Never lie to your mother, others lie to."

"Okay you scared me for a minute there." Apollo said.

"Yeah." The others agreed.

"Sorry." Hermes said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

'It wouldn't to Sally." Annabeth said.

"And I was support to know that how?" Percy asked.

"Good point."

"You told a mortal?" Zeus asked.

"No clear-sighted she figured it out." Poseidon said.

Zeus nodded.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

"Now I want to go to the beach." Poseidon and Percy said.

"Well maybe on the next break you two can go." Hades suggested.

"Sweet."

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"That one place where I will actually get in the water" Nico said dreamily.

"Why would you be there" Poseidon asked

"Percy took me there one summer" Nico said, blushing very bright red.

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Yeah because that sad accuse for a mortal is to lazy getting his ass kicked." Silena said.

"Language." Aphrodite said.

"Sorry but true."

"It may be true, but language."

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"I'll give you bean dip right up your ass." Athena, Nico and Annabeth said.

"Oh were in bigger trouble when both of the wise girls cursed." Apollo said.

"Language Nico, Annabeth." Athena and Chiron said.

"Sorry." Nico and Annabeth said, not sounding sorry at all.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"He better let you go." Poseidon and Nico growled.

"Did he?" Nico asked.

"Yeah." Percy said.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He let us go, so please read Annabeth." Percy said.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Nice she would bribe me to let her go easily." Hermes said.

"But I still like May better."

"More like Iris." Apollo sung. Hermes blushed red and hit Apollo upside the head. Everyone laughed.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"What!" Aphrodite and Silena yelled.

"OW that was my ear!" Hephaestus and Beckendorf yelled rubbing their ears.

"Sorry." The two kissed their cheeks. They all blushed and Annabeth continued after everyone but Ares laughed.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He paid for it!" Clarisse yelled.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"DO IT!" Everyone yelled even Hestia yelled it.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"She did it for me." Percy mumbled. Nico then rubbed his back, while avoiding his Achilles Spot.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game**

"Good." Hestia said.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

"I wonder how she found that out." Percy looked at Chiron.

"How am I suppose to know." Chiron said shrugging his shoulders.

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

"Wish I was there." Travis said.

"Why?" Demeter asked.

"To put some hot sauce in the dip."

"Nice." Hermes said proudly.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'll be the one driving." Hades and Nico said.

"Now whose father like son?" Poseidon asked.

**Like I'd be the one driving.**

"Hades and Nico think like the boy." Hades and Nico laughed with the others.

**I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Sweet, how did you do that?" Thalia asked.

"I still don't know." Percy said.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Athena and Annabeth shuddered.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"I drought that would stop you." Artemis said.

"It didn't." Percy said.

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"How romantic." The goddess of love cooed.

"And yet that was where we had our first date," Nico whispered wistfully to Percy.

Percy smiled and kissed Nico's cheek.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"They trait you get when you hook up with Brother." Hades and Zeus said before glaring at each other.

"Would that mean Nico's eyes turn the color of the sea?" Connor asked.

"Yeah, though it stays brown with a tint of green around it," Percy answered.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Ok what's with the blue food that's my color?" Zeus asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice."

"Honey you're talking to a book." Hera said. Zeus glared at Hera then smiled as he pulled her into his lap. Hera snuggled closer to him and Hermes took a photo and send it to Athena knowing she'll most likely paint a picture of it. Athena took out her iPhone and saved the photo and sent a thank you text to Hermes before Annabeth continued.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"And there's the streak." Athena said.

"What streak?" Chris asked.

"Every God has a streak that attracts them to a mortal well not Artemis and Hestia, Poseidon's is rebellious."

"Oh cool."

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash.**

Cue glares at Zeus. "Sorry." Zeus mumbled.

**She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"You know now that you mention it Thalia is the only child with my features." Zeus said.

"Nico is the same." Hades said. "I think the Fates did that on purposes." Hestia said.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"Oh I'm very proud," Poseidon said.

"I'm also proud," Athena said. Annabeth looked happy.

"Me too." Hermes said with everyone else.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"I don't care about that."

"I know Dad." And he pulled Nico closer to him.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

"Yep." Poseidon said.

"You visited didn't you?" Zeus asked.

"Yep and you can't stop me, not even Father could."

"I'm not planning on stopping you, or anyone anymore. Visit all you want just no over boarding."

"Deal." Everyone said.

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father.**

Poseidon looked at the floor, guilty.

"I don't anymore Dad." Percy said.

**Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"Worst fate imaginable," Percy mumbled so only Nico heard.

"Sorry."

"Not your fault."

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Ouch, man that hurts!" Hera glared.

"I'm sorry!" Percy yelled.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good!"

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—Ihaveto, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

"CAMP HALF BLOOD!" The demigods yelled.

"All right kids calm down." Chiron said.

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Good demigods rule, mortals drool but Rachael." Nico said. And gave Percy a peck on the lips.

"And our families." Thalia said.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"My idiot brothers maybe." Poseidon growled. Hades and Zeus glared at their older/younger brother.

"Hey he's right, but not at the idiot part." Percy said.

"At least he appreciates us." Hades and Zeus said before glaring at each other.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Why?" Hermes asked. "Checking up." Poseidon said.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Hera." Poseidon growled.

"Don't look at me." Hera said hands in the air.

"Well did you?"

"NO!"

"Good."

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"That will put her in danger." Demeter said.

"I know it was stupid and I hated it." Percy said while intertwining his fingers with Nico's.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

"And she's also loyal how sweet." Demeter cooed.

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Good question."

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**"She was confusing me very badly." Percy said.**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

The demigods groaned. "I hate those dreams." They said.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Now what?" Hestia asked her younger brothers. The two brothers glared at each as Athena read.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Hades." Zeus and Poseidon growled. The three brothers glared.

"Not Dad." Nico thought.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed,No!**

"Ha I win." Zeus said. Poseidon splashed him, getting Hera wet as well and everyone was shocked. Poseidon smirked knowing Zeus wouldn't do anything, since Athena was talking to him and hadn't gone back to her throne.

"You win this round only because you have Athena."

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"Now what's got you into you?" Athena asked.

"Well I did just poke him in the eye." Zeus smirked before getting elbowed by Hera.

"OW."

"Don't make him splash you again, I don't want to get wet again." Hera warned.

"Fine."

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"Monster?" Travis asked.

"I hope not." Nico said worried, he didn't want Percy to face another monster yet.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway**

"MONSTER RAN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Travis and Conner yelled running away.

"GET BACK HERE TRAVIS AND CONNER!" Grover yelled. Chiron grabbed Grover by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up , as if he a feather.

"All right that's enough boys."

"They started it." Grover mumbled. Everyone laughed.

"Grover, when did you get here," Annabeth asked.

"I just got here," was his answer.

**against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Oh I see." Annabeth said.

"Yeah me too."Artemis said.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"I was thinking you scared me." Percy said.

"Sorry." Grover said.

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"Oh about everything." Percy said sheepishly.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!"he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"Nope only because I didn't know she knew of any of this." Percy said.

"A lot of demigods don't know that." Chiron said.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before:" me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

Grover smiled. "Grover rocks." The demigods said. Grover blushed.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

That's the end of the chapter whose next?" Annabeth asked.


	6. Chapter 6- Memories Are Shown

**AN: I had a lot of help with the scene of abuse in this. All thanks to "FantasyBeast14" who truly had some awesome ideas. All my thanks goes straight to you. You're the best with this part of the story line. **

***All rights go to Rick Riordan. ***

* * *

"Not yet Annabeth. I want to talk to Percy," Nico said right after Annabeth finished the chapter. Nico then proceeded to drag Percy behind him and into another room.

"Percy why didn't you tell me," Nico asked in a pleading tone.

Percy didn't meet his boyfriend's eyes and stared at the ground before he muttered, "I didn't know how too. That's not a subject someone wants to talk about with the person that they love."

Nico gave a small smile despite the serious of the situation, there wasn't a time while Percy dated him that he wasn't showing how much he was loved. Nico soon brought a hand to Percy's chin so that he was looking into his deep sea-green eyes that he loved so much.

"I will make sure he is tortured in the fields, nobody hurts you without my say," Nico declared.

Percy wrapped his arms around Nico, showing he was grateful for Nico being there for him.

Nico's pocket began to feel warm before taking what appeared to be a note out of his jacket.

_"Perseus we know how you suffered as a child. But the others need to know how hard a life for a demigod can be and that they can be accountable for it. We know Perseus has no interest in retelling all the details. So they are going to be shown memories instead. _

_The Fates"_

Nico bit his lip knowing Percy was not going to like this, but he showed him the note to read from the Fates.

Percy read through the note that Nico handed him. His eyes watered after he read it, he should have known that he would have to explain somehow what happened. He wasn't looking forward to that at all, his past was truly horrific. Nico grabbed his hand and flashed him a reassuring smile that everything would be fine.

When they returned Demeter questioned, "are you two ready to continue reading?"

"Not yet, we received a note from the Fates," Nico answered.

"Well read it," Zeus ordered.

Right after Nico read the note, everyone looked interested. Nobody knew about Percy's past since he never spoke about it and with good reason.

"So we are going to see Percy's memories," Clarisse said out of the blue.

Nico nodded before whispering to Percy, "You'll be fine. If you survived that, then you can survive anything. I know you can"

"Thanks Nico," Percy said before pecking his cheek before continuing. "I guess I'm ready to show my memories."

Just then the Throne Room was engulfed in white light.

When the light died down, they found themselves in a cramped apartment. The carpet was covered with empty bottles of beer and bags of chips along with dirty laundry. Aphrodite looked like she was about to faint. Annabeth's nose crinkled in disgust. "Don't tell me Percy lived _here_," she said. Poseidon grimaced as he nodded. "I'm afraid so," he responded. "Why are we here," Clarisse asked. "There's no one even here." As soon as the words left her mouth a greasy looking man entered through the door. "Sally!" He called out. Poseidon looked on in disgust. His Sally married that? When the man did not get a response he called out for her again, impatience clear in his voice. "Where's that damn woman," he grumbled under his breath. Artemis's face hardened. How dare that piece of filth speak of a woman like that? The man walked to fridge and grabbed a beer when a small boy with black hair and green eyes appeared in the doorway rubbing his eyes, blanket in hand. "Oh Percy was so CUTE," Silena could not help but gush. Nico smiled, he had to agree, his boyfriend was a cute kid.

"Mommy said she was going to be working late tonight," he said in a small voice, not looking the man in the eye. "She did, did she?" the man growled. Not only did he have to serve himself, but he had to deal with her stupid kid now too? "Go to your room," he said. "I don't wanna have to deal with you." When Percy did not move immediately, the man's face contorted in anger. "I said," he growled. "Go. To. Your. Room!" He placed the beer on the table and walked towards the boy who began to shake with fear. He grabbed a fistful of his hair, dragged him down the hall and threw him into a room, all while ignoring his cries of pain. Poseidon closed his eyes as grief began to overwhelm him. Annabeth and Thalia looked downright murderous, even Clarisse looked as though she would like nothing more than to gut the man before them. Charlie had his arm around Silena who had started sobbing. Nico's eyes filled with angry tears and he clenched his fists, wanting to pummel this sorry excuse for a man. Hestia looked on with sadness in her eyes. If this was only the first time, she was afraid of what happened next.

The man walked into the room and Percy pushed himself away from him, scrambling across the floor. When he tried to stand up, his stepfather pushed him back down. When he heard the young boy whimpering, he felt a surge of power run through his body. He brought his foot back and kicked the boy hard in the stomach. His yelps of pain only fueled him even more and he kicked him several more times. By this time there was not a single demigod who did not have tears in their eyes. Even a few of the gods were crying. Many of them closed their eyes, but that did not protect them from the cries of the five-year old before them.

When the boy started coughing up blood the man decided that was enough. He bent down and yanked on the boy's hair and whispered in his ear, "You tell your mother about this and I'll kill you". Percy's friends were all gritting their teeth at the threat. With those words being said, the man walked out of the room and closed the door, not even glancing at the battered boy curled up on the floor.


	7. Chapter 7- Memories Continued and Ch 5

**AN: I don't own any of this, all belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

_By this point the gods and demigods couldn't even imagine how it could get any worse. Percy's friends couldn't help but wonder why he never talked to them. Immediately they felt guilty. For years they had been dumping their own problems on him and not once did they ever consider that his life may not have been as perfect as they had believed. They felt that they had seen enough, but apparently the Fates didn't agree and they were warped into yet another memory. This time Percy was older, maybe 10 years old and he was sitting on his bed, squinting at the book in his hands. "Well what do you know," Annabeth said, holding back her laughter. "Seaweed brain does try". Nico couldn't help but chuckle at that. He knew all too well about his boyfriend's tendency to avoid all kinds of reading. But, he also knew that it was because his Dyslexia was worse than that of most demigods. The door creaked open but Percy didn't look up, choosing instead to keep his focus on the words in front of him. Gabe walked in and sneered at the boy. "How stupid do you have to be," he began. Percy jumped at the sound of his voice and shut his book. "To not know how to read". Percy turned crimson. "I'm not stupid," he muttered. Gabe walked forward. "What'd you say?" Percy looked him in the eye and said, "I'm not stupid". Gabe let out a harsh laugh. "Yeah, you're a fucking genius. That's why you've already been kicked out of four schools in the last four years". Percy winced at those harsh, yet truthful words. Nico's eyes softened. He was the only one who knew how much it bothered Percy when people insulted his intelligence. He just never knew why until now. Thalia and Clarisse felt horrible. They've been teasing Percy and calling him stupid for years. He never said anything, always laughed it off, but now, they were starting to wonder how much their words truly hurt him. Gabe walked closer. "You're so fucking smart that you can't make anything above a C-. For fuck's sake, you can't even READ!" Percy's eyes were starting to water at this point but he refused to let those tears fall. Crying was a sign of weakness. He just glared at his step-father, daring him to say more although praying he wouldn't, lest his walls finally come crumbling down. Gabe just laughed at walked back out the door. "Real fucking genius," he said._

* * *

Another whole light appeared and they were back in the throne room. The Olympians were seated in their throne while the demigods were piled on the floor. It took a moment to register that they were indeed back in the throne room. Percy was lying on the floor shaking as if he were in a nightmare. Nico were there in an instant and proped Percy's head into his lap, combing his fingers through his hair. Which always worked when he woke from his nightmares that you usually get as a demigod. Percy slowly opened his eyes and leaned into the warmth that Nico provided for him and slowly looked into his boyfriend's black as night eyes before asking. "The fates are starting to have you visit my memories, aren't they?"

"I'm sorry Perce," Nico said before leaning in to kiss him.

"It's not your fault, you at least deserve to know. Lets continue reading, okay?" Percy said knowing that everyone was paying attention to them talking.

"Who wants to read?" Annabeth asked.

"I want to." Travis said. Annabeth handed him the book. Travis opened the book. "Umm…"

"Don't you want in Greek?" Hera asked.

"No I-I want to try and read it in English…" Travis got up and walked over Athena and sat down beside her feet. "Just to be safe. **M-My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting?"** Travis looked up at Athena, she bent down and looked.

"Yes you read it right, go on."

"That doesn't sound too good." Poseidon said paling.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"My kind of driving." Ares grinned.

"And that is why your motorcycle ends up in my shop…" Hephaestus commented.

"And you in my infirmary…" Apollo said.

"Making out with Aph…" Athena said.

"And repeating the cycle all over again. The three chorused. Aphrodite blushed.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

Don't even think about it Conner." Grover said.

"Think about what?" Conner asked innocently.

"You know what."

"Fine."

"Io giuro di non radersi i destini della Grover gal a fare dei pantaloni. What did I just say?"

"I swear by the Fates I won't shave Grover's legs to make pants."

"Done." The fates voices echoed the room.

"Man I just got trick into swearing by the fates." Conner said.

"Nice work." Hermes said.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"He does now." Percy said.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Stalker." Chris said.

"You know that's not what he meant!" Clarisse said.

"Yeah yeah."

"**Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

"Now you're my brother you live with me at my house." Percy said.

"I do?" Grover asked.

"Yeah, our house is big so there are rooms for Annabeth, Thaila. While you have separate room and so do Nico you and I to ours self in the basement."

"And we respect each other's privacy." Thalia said.

"You better." Zeus and Athena warned.

"We do we swore to the Fates we would." The four chorused.

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"**Blaa-ha-ha! Goat!" Grover said.**

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

"Yah Grover doesn't change much." Annabeth said hugging her friend.

"No way." Grover said hugging back.

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Oh burned." Travis said.

"So how am I doing so far Lady Athena?"

"Good." Athena said as she watched carefully to help if he needed it.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Still going on about that?" Athena asked.

"Yeah they really messed with my head saying Mrs. Dodds was not really so I was relieved to hear she was real. " Percy said.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

"What's chasing you?" Poseidon asked paling.

"Um... you'll find out soon enough." Percy said.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"HEY!" Hades yelled.

"Sorry, Lord Hades." Grover said.

Who just grumbled in response.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes please drive faster." Poseidon begged. While Nico was beginning to pale.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Mmm strawberries." Travis and Katie said and then blushed when they realized that they spoke at the same time.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

"She did what any mother would do." Hestia said.

"Then explain why Air head here got to be free while the rest of us lived in…" Hades shuddered "Father's stomach."

**"Um…"**

"Oh I know She said she tried to hide all of you after Hestia but she failed each time until Zeus was born and the whole rock trick." Nico said.

"How do you know this son?" Hades asked.

"She told us and that's all I'm saying." Nico said.

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"Umm what?" Zeus asked.

"I don't really know?" Athena said.

"We were pretty confusing." Percy said.

"I say it and I don't even know." Grover said.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

"Yeah boys." Artemis said.

"You know you loves us sis." Said Apollo

"No not really and don't call me sis."

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Pease, please, please." Poseidon continued. Nico was white as a sheet of paper, while leaning on Percy for support.

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

"WHAT!" Poseidon and Nico yelled.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

"Poseidon and Nico breathed relief.

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

ZEUS!" Poseidon yelled. While Nico gave him his death glare. Which made Hades smile when he was Zeus flinch.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Hades and Nico paled and said "Oh no."

"What?" Everyone that didn't know asked.

"Oh no I'm telling." Was their response.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"Hey that's me." Thalia said frowning.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"I wish she could." Poseidon said.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

"Okay shutting up would be good now." Travis said. Grover just glared at Travis.

"Sorry dude but true."

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"The Minotaur." Ares said.

"Oh no." Poseidon said.

Nico began muttering. "He's still alive, since he's here".

"Don't look at me." Hades said rising his hand in defenses.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"So sweet he loves his mom." Hera said.

"Of course I do." Percy smiled.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"You should cut that and make it easier for the children." Demeter said.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—**

"Did it just say under wear?" Hestia asked.

"Yes." Travis said.

"Okay just checking I heard you right."

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms**

Everyone laughed.

**—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

"Nice way of saying their sharp." Hermes said.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"oh it's real." The demigods said.

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

"Smart woman." Athena said.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"Very smart." Dionysus said.

"Wow you're listening?" Conner asked.

"Of course I am Travis."

"Um I'm Conner sir."

"Whatever."

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"He's smelling." Athena said.

"Oh." Everyone who didn't know.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

Everybody just growled, remember the memories they saw of Percy. Nico tightened his grip while holding his hand, he just wanted to kill Gabe himself for what he put his boyfriend though. _'Nobody messes with the son of Hades.'_

**Oops.**

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

"She smart." Annabeth said.

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"Not selfish that would be Poseidon." Travis joked.

"I get it son, good job." Hermes commented

"Hey!" Everyone laughed.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

"Oh no." Poseidon said paling.

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

"I think I'm going to be sick." Katie said.

"No sick." Travis said. Katie laughed and smiled at Travis.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never out run this thing.**

"Smart move." Annabeth said.

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

"Nice." Clarisse said.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

"Don't think like that please don't." Poseidon said.

"Sorry Dad."

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"NO!"**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

"NO!" Percy was crying not liking this chapter but he knew she was okay. He put his head in Nico's chest, who wrapped one of his arms around him, while the other was rubbing his back to comfort him.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

The room was silent so Travis continued.

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea**

"Oh boy." Thalia said.

"Hey my stupid ideas work sometimes," Percy's voice was muffled since his head was till buried in Nico's shirt.

**—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"How'd you do that?" Clarisse asked.

How did I do that?

"Oh great now I'm thinking like him." Clarisse said.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

Demeter and Katie looked a little green.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

"Yeah right." Clarisse and Ares said.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

"You were saying?" Athena asked.

"Shut up."

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

"Sweet points for killing with its own horn." Ares said.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish.**

Hades eyes widen and walked up human sized to Poseidon and Athena being careful of Travis on the floor.

"Poseidon get up for one minute." Hades said. Poseidon got up.

"One solid punch, I think I took the boy's mother away." Poseidon punched Hades in the noise making it bleed.

"I'm sorry." Hades went back to his thrown where he held a tissue to his noise.

"You're forgiven sorry if I broke your nose.

"I deserved it."

**I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

"It's okay, we got her back and that's all I'm saying." Percy said. While leaning into Nico.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Princess?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah." Percy said. And snuggled closer to Nico.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"Not anymore, Nico's definitely the one for me." Percy said. Then gave Nico a kiss on the lips.

"**Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

Travis marked the page and closed the book.

"How'd I do?" Travis asked looking up at Athena.

"You did perfectly." Travis ran up to Katie hugged her and swilled in a circle.

"Did you hear that I read it perfectly!" Travis said.

"I heard!" Katie laughed while blushing the deepest red. "Who's next?' Athena asked.


End file.
